WORK on the long awaited Alderley bypass has been given the all clear by Network Rail - removing the final stumbling block for the relief road.

Now funding for the three and a half mile road, the cost of which has soared to an estimated £59.8 million, is expected to get the final seal of approval from Government by January.

Construction could be underway by Spring 08 with the first traffic driving along the route a year later.

The road has been a priority in the region for decades and will bring relief to the traffic congested villages of Alderley Edge and Nether Alderley.

It had been feared Network Rail would not free up the line for construction to take place.

Initially the rail firm indicated that the earliest contractors could take possession of the railway line would be Christmas 2009 and that work would have to be undertaken in two stages, with completion in Christmas 2010.

But Network Rail has now identified a gap in its timetable over Christmas 2008 to build the tunnel underneath the railway line at Welsh Row, Nether Alderley - as long as the funding is confirmed by the end of February.

Parish councillor Paul Tomlinson said: "It won’t take as long as we thought as they [Network Rail] think they can do it now in one.

"So it [the bypass] could be open by 2009."

Cheshire County Council appointed civil engineers Birse Civils Ltd, as the preferred contractor at the end of October and are working with the firm to finalise the design.

County Councillor Marc Asquith said: "Everyone thinks nothing is happening, but this is not the case.

"We have been driving this project through and officers are committed to it.

"This is a road we move down one step at a time.

"Everyone wants to jump forward to the end. In the end we will get there."

Coun Asquith said the county were in "continual conversation" with the Department for Transport.

He said: "They know our timescales and understand the pressures."

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: "We are currently considering the business case and will make an announcement in due course."